OPEN8 Inc., (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO Yuko Takamatsu; hereinafter referred to as “OPEN8”) provider of in-house AI video editing cloud service Video BRAIN, has raised approximately 3 Billion Yen through third-party allotment underwritten by an existing investor, Future Creation Fund managed by the SPARX Group Co., Ltd. (President and Group CEO Shuhei Abe) and by a new investor, Japan Post Investment Corporation (Representative Director and CEO Hiroyuki Komiya), in addition to financing from the Japan Finance Corporation. Consequently, the total amount of funding raised by the company has reached approximately 7 Billion Yen.

■Financing Objectives and Future Development

OPEN8 works to enhance the in-house video production capability of companies by providing APIs such as the video editing cloud Video BRAIN, which allows users to easily edit high-quality videos in minutes. Video BRAIN has found wide acceptance across various industries, boasting the No.1 spot(*1) in net sales share among automatic video creation softwares in Japan. With the increase in network speeds and widespread adoption of video on social media platforms, companies’ use of video as a tool for marketing, sales support, and operational manuals continues to rapidly expand.

With this latest funding, OPEN8’s intent is to expand the functions of Video BRAIN to enrich the user experience and continue to help users easily create high-quality content that works for their business needs, as well as to increase recognition of OPEN8’s brand through proactive marketing activities. In addition, OPEN8 will strengthen the recruitment activities of engineers, product managers, enterprise sales staff, marketers, customer success specialists, and other necessary team members to accelerate business growth.

(*1) MIC Research Institute “Current Status and Future Prospects of the Automatic Video Creation and Delivery Software Market, FY2020” https://mic-r.co.jp/mr/01930/

●Ichitaro Akita, Capitalist, SPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd.:

We find ourselves in the midst of a rapid shift in how information spreads, away from the traditional formats of text and still images and towards video. We believe in OPEN8’s ability to provide the world with smarter, AI-based tools for video creation, such as Video BRAIN, and that they will continue to play a key role in disseminating information via videos.

●Takuma Baba, Managing Director, Japan Post Investment Corporation:

With the spread of social media video platforms such as Youtube and TikTok, as well as the introduction of the 5G communication infrastructure, videos are finally reaching the stage of being an integral part of mass media. Video BRAIN has quickly grasped the demand of the times by minimizing the stress of video creation by leveraging their technology, giving them extraordinary potential. There is no going back to a world without video, and we are proud to support the further growth of OPEN8 in this historical turning point.

●Yuko Takamatsu, President and CEO of OPEN8 Inc.:

As a content technology company, we at OPEN8 are striving to improve the operational efficiency of content creation, which has become an indispensable task for companies worldwide to better utilize and communicate information. We want to create a world where everyone has access to high-quality experienceable content. To that end, we developed AI video editing cloud Video BRAIN and launched it as a SaaS business to give businesses the tool to create rich video content easier than ever.
Having Video BRAIN been adopted by various companies in various industries over the past two years, I can confidently say that the demand for our product will continue to increase and our business foundation is solid.

This funding will allow us to move closer to becoming the number one company in this rapidly expanding video market. As we continue to strive for that goal, I want to further refine our product and investment in growing our team with members that could help achieve our vision.

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■About Video BRAIN

Video BRAIN is an in-house AI video editing cloud service that allows anyone to easily create high-quality videos in minutes with the support of AI. With a user interface designed specifically not to overwhelm those without prior video editing experience, videos can easily be created as if creating a slide on Powerpoint, allowing widespread implementation across various industries and users.
Video BRAIN can be used in conjunction with OPEN8’s social media posting and analysis tool, Insight BRAIN, allowing for one-stop video content development, from initial planning, creation, and analysis.

Video BRAIN homepage: https://video-b.com/

■OPEN8 Corporate Profile

OPEN8 is a content technology company developing AI technology focused on natural language processing and computer vision, as embodied in its proprietary “OPEN8 CORE TECHNOLOGY” algorithms and software modules. With the concept of being “a growth-driver for information distribution strategy through AI × SaaS”, OPEN8 supports companies’ distribution of their video content by utilizing video content creation/distribution know-how gained from the video advertising and media businesses, through Video BRAIN an in-house AI video editing cloud, Insight BRAIN a social media posting and analysis service, and providing other original APIs.
OPEN8 has been named a 2019 Red Herring Top 100 Asia Winner, awarded to innovative venture companies in Asia by the US-based Red Herring global media company.

(1) SaaS Business

OPEN8 offers companies the in-house video editing cloud Video BRAIN. When materials such as text or photos are uploaded to the cloud, the AI engine analyzes the uploaded data and generates a story-based video, allowing anyone to create rich, high-quality content in minutes. This service has found wide acceptance across many industries and in many departmental uses including PR, operation manuals, and recruitment, amongst others. In addition, Video BRAIN can be used in conjunction with OPEN8’s social media posting and analysis tool, Insight BRAIN, allowing for one-stop video content development, from initial planning through to production and analysis.

・No.1 Sales Share of Automatic Video Creation Software (*1)
・No.1 AI tool selected by marketers (*2)
・No.1 Enterprise AI video editing tool (*2)
・2019 Good Design Award
・Ruby Biz Grand Prix 2020 Special Award

*1 MIC Research Institute “Current Status and Future Prospects of the Automatic Video Creation and Delivery Software Market, FY2020” https://mic-r.co.jp/mr/01930/
*2 Japan Marketing Research Organization, Inc., November 2019

(2) API／MLaaS (Machine Learning as a Service) Business

This business provides the OPEN8 CORE TECHNOLOGY algorithms and software modules as APIs. These APIs can be used independently or in combination, according to the needs of the company. In addition, OPEN8 can build customized models based on private data held by a company, allowing for the development of original solutions utilizing the OPEN8 CORE TECHNOLOGY.

OPEN8 Inc.
Representative: President and CEO, Yuko Takamatsu
Head Office: Shibuya Infos Tower 19F
Sakuragaoka-cho 20-1 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Established: April 10, 2015
Businesses: SaaS Business, API/MLaaS Business
https://open8.com/

For further inquiries, please contact:
OPEN8 Inc.
E-MAIL：info@open8.com